Score of 'Phantom': How Good Is It?

By BERNARD HOLLAND

Published: January 28, 1988

What is the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber's ''Phantom of the Opera'' worth? Some composers and performers for whom songfulness is serious business are responding this week.

Apparently, seeing is believing. Frederica von Stade, the heroine of the Metropolitan's current run of ''Pelleas et Melisande,'' took her children to a preview and came way enthralled. Ned Rorem, the distinguished American composer celebrated especially for his vocal writing, has only heard the music via records: his disappointment is expressed in acid terms.

William Bolcom's conciliatory look at Mr. Lloyd Webber has a detachment consistent perhaps with his own remarkably broad career. Mr. Bolcom is not only the composer of such ambitious pieces as ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' but, as pianist with his wife, the singer Joan Morris, is also a subtle purveyor of American popular music.

Mr. Bolcom - in New York for a Bolcom and Morris afternoon at Town Hall - was asked if ''Phantom'' is a powerful score or simply a subsidiary prop in a larger spectacle - music by which to watch ''The Phantom of the Opera.'' Parallel With Cavalli

''It's a lot like operas written in the late 17th century,'' he said. ''Can you really extract the music of Cavalli from all those cherubs and wires and machines and make it stand on its own? I don't think so. In shows like 'Anything Goes' at the Beaumont, it's the songs of Cole Porter - their wonderful precision - that matter. The plot itself is pretty creaky.''

Mr. Bolcom sees ''Phantom'' as simply the latest phase in a lasting English rage for Italian opera, one that stretches back almost 300 years. ''It reminds you of William Vincent Wallace's pieces in the 19th century,'' Mr. Bolcom said. ''There's a lot of Puccini in Lloyd Webber, too. 'Memories' from 'Cats' sounds very close to ''Un bel di' from 'Madama Butterfly.' ''

Mr. Rorem, who wrote sympathetically about Mr. Lloyd Webber's ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' some years back, is not so pleased with ''Phantom.'' 'Corn Into Smarm'

''The former was a show-biz pastiche of everything from Palestrina to Penderecki,'' he said. ''What it lacked in originality, it made up for in the infectious chutzpah of youth, all laid out with skilled clarity. The times were corny, and corn in itself is not unhealthy. Well, 17 years have passed and the chutzpah's turned into commerce, and the corn into smarm. The charming vulgarity of 'Superstar' has become merely vulgarity.''

Ms. von Stade, one of opera's more tasteful and affecting singers, ''adored'' the show and profited from seeing it through the eyes of her two children - aged 7 and 10.

''I thought the portrayals of opera were very human and loving - in fact the show itself seemed to me opera in its most accessible state,'' Ms. von Stade said. It also reminded her of singing at the same Paris Opera. ''We often rehearsed in a ballet room upstairs,'' she said, ''and I had heard rumors about the Phantom of the Opera. The passageway up was a little eerie and I was sure he was hiding there.''

Beverly Sills, who heads the New York City Opera, liked ''Phantom'' too. ''It's a different art form than 'Oklahoma' and 'South Pacific,' and maybe more sophisticated,'' she said. ''You really have to pay attention; there's more here than special effects. Also there's very little dialogue as there was in the old musicals.'' 'A Transitional Style'

''What we have is a big public entertainment,'' Mr. Bolcom said, ''and with that in mind, I think Andrew Lloyd Webber shows more sophistication in this show than he might want to be accused of. There's a certain canniness in the details - the whole-tone scale for the new opera, the fugal entries, the way scenes are structured musically. It's not the work of a primitive. There's been a real schism between the pop and opera worlds, and this kind of theater really does try to bring them closer. It's a transitional style - a melding of the different kinds of music.''

But does Mr. Lloyd Webber's music have a life of its own? Mr. Bolcom reported turning off the televised performance of the ''Requiem'' after 20 minutes of listening several years back, complaining of the unbearably saccharine quality.

''In Verdi, the first court of appeal is the music,'' he said. ''In Lloyd Webber it's just part of the show. In the circus, you want just the right music for the elephants, but it's the elephants you're meant to watch.''

Mr. Bolcom offers a fascinating parallel in the Chicago Lyric Opera's recent production of Alban Berg's ''Lulu'' - a score as difficult and esoteric for the general public as Mr. Lloyd Webber's is accessible. ''It was a theatrical success - with 93 percent attendance,'' he said. ''The show was great because of how well music and drama were integrated.''

No matter what any musician says, the amount of money ''Phantom of the Opera'' stands to make is a sensitive issue for creative people, so many of whom have struggled in the past or continue to struggle.

''The hype surrounding 'The Phantom of the Opera' centers almost exclusively on its unprecedented financial success,'' Mr. Rorem said. ''Nobody mentions the poverty of its score. Despite Andrew Lloyd Webber's vast fortune, I can't think of any serious composer who would change places with him.''